Paul Hurst Pre Fleetwood Town

Town Manager Paul Hurst is hoping to get back to winning ways when Shrewsbury take on Fleetwood on Tuesday Night.

Town lost 2-1 to Sheffield United on Saturday after playing the whole second half with 9 men.

It was the first loss of Paul Hurst’s reign as Town boss and he acknowledged that football can change quickly.

“I did say how things can change extremely quickly in football,” said Paul.

“We’ve experienced our first defeat, which in reality wasn’t the biggest shock in the world to lose at Sheffield United, but to lose 2-1 with how the game panned out was almost a moral victory for the lads.

“I think if that had been my first game in charge we might have suffered a heavy defeat. At least there was some fighting quality in there, but it doesn’t take away the start of the game when we looked a little bit like we were caught in the headlights.”

Saturday’s game saw Town visit one of League One’s biggest grounds and on Tuesday they will visit one of the smallest, but for Hurst every game is as important as the next.

“The Sheffield United game will arguably be the biggest game of the season in respect to the crowds, but it doesn’t really matter if there’s one person watching or 20,000,” Paul told the media.

“For me, it’s a pride thing and it’s a competitive game. The individuals that managers want are the ones that are up for every single game and realistically for us it’s a game where we are more likely to pick points up on paper.

“I think they’ve had a decent start. They’ve been a little bit up and down, but they got a decent victory on Saturday and they will be looking to build on that and carry a bit of momentum.

“From our point of view it’s the first disappointment we’ve suffered since I’ve been here. We’re still very much at a stage about learning about players. How are we going to react? Do we feel sorry for ourselves? Do we think we are not good enough again? Or, do we think, we were up against it, and go to Fleetwood and have a good battle and try to take away a positive result?”

Fleetwood’s journey over the last decade has seen them rise from the North West Counties League to League One and Hurst paid tribute to the Fylde coast side.

“They’ve got a very nice stadium,” continued Paul.

“The training ground now is fantastic, but it’s all about having ambition and a lot of clubs will speak about having ambition, but realistically haven’t.

“Finance does help. It drives me mad when people say it doesn’t contribute, of course it contributes, it gives you a massive advantage at times, but then you still have a job to do and there’s no guarantees.

“Clearly they have looked to progress with the training ground and the facilities, so I think it’s only credit to the people that have been there, particularly the ones that have been there for most of that journey.”

Meanwhile, Town will be without Ethan Jones and Shaun Whalley after both missed Saturday’s game with injury.

“Both will be unavailable,” confirmed Hurst.

“Ethan’s knee hasn’t gone back in yet, that’s something that’s concerning the physio and we will see how that is over the next couple of days before looking at a fix for that.

“It’s disappointing when he’s just come in and going into the game at the weekend I thought both him and Shaun would be available to me.”

“Shaun isn’t too bad. Whether or not Saturday comes too soon for him we will see. I don’t think he’s ruled out of that just yet, but for the week after I would certainly expect him to be available to us again.”